Google Chrome has this slight problem where it hoards RAM and battery like Smaug hoards shiny things. It sucks, and it completely ruins an otherwise perfect browser. Apparently, Google is aware of Chrome’s problems, and it has a 12-step program to fix things.

In a post on Google+, Peter Kasting, Senior Software Engineer on the Chrome team, has laid out a number of upcoming changes that should reduce CPU strain (and consequently improve battery life). Background tabs won’t have the same priority as foreground tabs (something mobile browsers have been doing for years), and the CPU strain is two-thirds lower on some pages, like search results.

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Google also recently announced a new feature for the Chrome beta release — not loading ‘non-critical’ Flash plugins until the user clicks on them, a minor change that should have a substantial impact on performance. It seems that Google is committed to regaining its crown as the power-user’s browser; whether users can be dragged back kicking and screaming about Firefox scripts remains to be seen.